A Moff is the governor of a sector in the Galactic Empire.
History[]
Imperial Moffs traced their origins to the final days of the Old Republic, when the Sector Governance Decree was promulgated by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine using his emergency powers, establishing regional governors throughout the Galaxy. The title of Moff was specifically chosen by Palpatine as a tribute to the satraps of the small space empires that had grown together to become the Old Republic; the subsequent assumption of Imperial power explicitly presented as a revival of the glories and grandeur of ancient monarchies like Atrisia.
Moff Wessex, Moff Tarkin, and Moff Wessel, three of the New Order's first Regional Governors
The initial Sector Governance Decree caused immediate alarm in the Galactic Senate, serving as the major catalyst for the Petition of 2000. Delaying his plans, Palpatine used this show of senatorial opposition as a means to identify and eliminate his most dangerous opponents in the political elite. The first Moffs took up office until several weeks after the Declaration of the New Order and the establishment of the Galactic Empire.
The early Moff were appointed to control rather larger territories than those traditionally dubbed sectors referring instead to the theatres of operations of the twenty Sector Armies within the Grand Army of the Republic.
By the time that the Senate was dissolved in 0 BBY, Moffs had been assigned to cover most of known space and a cadre of higher-ranking Grand Moffs appointed as governors-general of a new class of Oversectors. Proposed by Moff Wilhuff Tarkin of Sesswenna Sector, these positions would facilitate better integration of forces and uniformity of government, reducing demands on military, paramilitary and judicial resources. Imperial Center Oversector incorporated most of the Core, while Tarkin's own Oversector Outer essentially incorporated the whole of the former Outland Regions, and the Bright Jewel Oversector embraced another vast tract of the Rim.
Grand Moff Ardus Kaine.
Over time Moffs and Grand Moffs were also appointed to rule over particular ministries, or granted additional resources to pursue special projects. Occasionally, a single existing sector might be converted into an Oversector and subdivided into new sectors, as with the planned transformation of the Tapani Sector that was interrupted by the Battle of Endor.
Following the Battle of Endor, the Moffs were largely responsible for the chaos that ensued during the Post-Endor Imperial power struggle. Ever ambitious, Moffs used their resources to vie for more and more power and territory forming temporary associations and alliances before dissolving them again. The Interim Ruling Council, which led the Empire through its darkest days, was the most cohesive and stable of such groups.
In the aftermath of the power struggle and Bacharan Valak's rise to the throne, Moffs resumed their normal duties. The Moffs were reorganized into a Moff's Council, positioned beneath the Imperial Ruling Council and comprising one of the elements of Imperial High Command. Led by the Supreme Moff, the Moff's Council was designed to allow for better coordination of Imperial resources and cooperation between the Imperial Moffs.
Role and powers[]
Under the Sector Governance Decree which caused such rancor in the Senate, each Moff was armed a broad mandate to monitor and secure sector government, and a force of soldiers that might be sufficient to secure their residence, maintain control in the surrounding streets, and provide protection to a few administrative personnel on detached duty.
By the time that the re-named Imperial Senate was swept away nineteen years later, the machinery of power that the Moffs directed had increased almost beyond recognition. Within the civil chain of command, they were now the formal superiors of all Planetary Governors, while the paramilitary apparatus of COMPNOR and the intelligence networks now amalgamated as Imperial Intelligence were both supposed to be channeled through the Moff's office at sector level. Most imposingly of all, they held authority over the immense military resources of a Sector Group. As regional governor, every Moff had ultimate authority over the deployment of all military forces within his sector, though the additional naval and military positions of High Admiral and Surface Marshal of the sector were normally also held by the Moff himself, and only rarely delegated to subordinates.
Moff Balfour, a typical regional governor at the height of the New Order
According to intelligence produced by the Rebel Alliance, the Naval forces in the most secure sectors included twenty-four Star Destroyers, 1,600 cruiser and corvette-scale warships, and 800 support craft, while the field forces of a typical Sector Army numbered 774,576 front-line troops, and a little over 400,000 support personnel, to say nothing of the dozens or hundreds of planetary garrisons in addition to small Stormtrooper brigades. In many sectors, the actual deployments were much smaller: in Minos Cluster, the Sector Group comprised a single ageing Victory-class Star Destroyer and a few small cruisers and corvettes, while in the Tapani Sector, on the eve of its planned transformation into an Oversector, the primary Army presence consisted of a single Battlegroup based at the Tallaan shipyards. Nevertheless, in terms of both manpower and firepower, the strength of the Imperial Service was truly unprecedented across the Galaxy: it was a rare Moff who found himself outnumbered or outgunned by any organized enemy force that he might face.
In return for these vast resources and virtually unchecked power, the Moffs were expected to maintain order, prevent corruption, enforce the law, and not to otherwise interfere with the operation of the local bureaucracy or sector government. Their authority was never defined or limited in any more precise terms than this; the most significant enhancement of their powers came with the abolition of the Senate and its associated bureaucracy, ending the principle means of challenging or circumventing their authority.
Such loose commissions often led to gross infringements of civil liberty and arbitrary tyranny; In the name of restoring order, Moffs have ordered their soldiers fire on peaceful demonstrations and bombarded planets into submission for political defiance. Decried as brutal excesses by senate "radicals" such as Mon Mothma, these actions were routinely justified to the wider galaxy against a history of civil war, political corruption and the threat of anarchy. Imperial propaganda placed blame at the feet of terrorists and rebels who were inciting unrest and creating, or at the very least legitimizing, the very tyranny that they claimed to be revolting against.
Insignia[]
Moff was ostensibly a civilian governmental position, not a military one, though virtually all appointees were either active or retired officers who elected to wear the uniform anyway. Further, most Moffs used their authority to appoint themselves High Admirals and Surface Marshal of their territories, granting them the right to wear the associated uniforms and rank insignia.